On the go and no time to finish that story right now? Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Register with us and content you save will appear here so you can access them to read later.

A compromise solution has been suggested to end the controversy that threatens to overwhelm Tauranga City Council's decision to convert Mount Maunganui Shopping Centre's Phoenix Carpark into a chill-out zone for shoppers

"Surely they don't need all the area for recreation. Half and half would be a good idea," Lance Gracie suggested.

He was approached by the Bay of Plenty Times for his opinion on the plan that would lose 55 central carparks and replace them with 58 additional parks further afield in Nikau Cres, Prince Ave and Oceanview Rd, plus 12 new parks in the May St carpark.

Surely they don't need all the area for recreation. Half and half would be a good idea.

Mount/Papamoa Ward councillor Leanne Brown said she felt a little conflicted about commenting because, before she was elected, she was the Mount Mainstreet manager who submitted to the council in support of the redevelopment.

She said she understood how retailers would be in panic mode at this time of the year, but she also knew what the Phoenix Carpark was like for the rest of the year. "It is a very under-utilised piece of land."

Cr Brown said the project was two and a-half years down the track and, although the horse had bolted, she said there was still an opportunity to alter the decision.